פורסם: 4 באפר׳ 2012, 11:10 על ידי: Sustainability Org
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עודכן 4 באפר׳ 2012, 11:11
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Bikes are encased in giant ice blocks and placed around town
By Toni Fitzgerald , April 3, 2012  |
We know the usual signs of spring: Flowers blooming. Birds chirping. Sun shining.
Now here's a new one, and it's not nature's work but the work of humans out to promote an eco-worthy program for folks living in the urban areas of Minneapolis-St. Paul.
It's a giant block of ice, 5,000 pounds worth, and encased inside is a bicycle.
It's possible to see the bike quite clearly but it's totally inaccessible, made so by the ice blocks surrounding it.
All one can do is wait for Mother Nature to do her thing and melt the ice, which will free the bike to be ridden away.Watching ice melt may not sound like an attention-grabber, but it made for a very successful alternative media campaign in Minneapolis and St. Paul last week.
The campaign was for the bike sharing program Nice Ride. The goal was to get people's attention and rekindle awareness for its bike sharing program now that the weather was turning nice again.
Nice Ride turned to Minneapolis's Persuasion Arts & Sciences for ideas.
"We had already developed the communications platform of 'make the most of the Twin Cities' short, sweet summer,'" says Dion Hughes, creative director at Persuasion.
"Concepting around marking the end of winter and the arrival of summer lead us to the 'ice bike' concept."
The campaign took only a few days to execute, and there was a rush to get it up and running as quickly as possible. Like most of the country, Minnesota experienced an early thaw.
"We had to move very quickly as we only had the idea approved by the client [two weeks ago]. So we did not have time to freeze the bikes in ice (spring arrived early!). The bikes were encased in slabs of ice, 5,000 pounds of ice per bike," Hughes says.
They were placed in three locations: two in Minneapolis (Uptown and downtown) and one in downtown Saint Paul, where Nice Ride just recently expanded.
They were put out on March 25. Within two days, all the ice had melted and the bikes were free to travel.
The stunt worked because it drew a perfect connection between the service being offered, the bike ride, and the time of year when that service is most in demand, after the spring thaw.
Visually, it captured people's imagination. It was the sort of display that gets people to stop and stare, trying to figure out what the whole thing is about, as if it were a piece of street art.
That resulted in some free publicity, too.
"For the low $ outlay, we were able to get coverage on two of the local network news broadcasts, as well as plenty of social buzz on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Instagram etc.," Hughes says.
"Plus, of course, the actual foot traffic attention from our target audience: people who live and work in urban Twin Cities and who might like to make the most of this coming summer on a Nice Ride bike." Source: medialifemagazine.com
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